Why is my website not showing up on Google?

Your site is missing from Google for one of two reasons. Google has not added it to its index, or Google has added it and ranks it too low to see. The fixes are different, so check which one you have first.

Type site: followed by your web address into Google. For example, site:yourbusiness.ca. Leave out the space after the colon.

If pages from your site appear, Google has indexed you. Skip to the section on ranking. If nothing appears, Google does not have your pages. Start with the next section.

Why Google has not indexed your site

The site is new. Google has to find a site before it can list it. That can take days or weeks. I do not know of a reliable way to make it faster, but the steps below help Google find you sooner.

A setting is telling Google to stay away. This is the cause I see most on freshly launched sites. A site under construction often has search engines switched off, and nobody switches them back on at launch.

In WordPress, go to Settings, then Reading. Look for the box labeled “Discourage search engines from indexing this site.” If it is checked, uncheck it and save. Wix and Squarespace have similar options, both for the whole site and for single pages. Check the page settings for anything that says hide from search results.

A file is blocking Google. Open yourbusiness.ca/robots.txt in your browser. If you see Disallow: / under User-agent: *, the file tells every search engine to skip the whole site. A developer sometimes adds this on a test copy of a site and it travels to the live site by accident. Whoever manages your site can remove it.

A page carries a noindex tag. This is a line of code in the page that says do not list this page. It has the same effect as the settings above. Search Console, covered next, flags it by name.

The domain changed and the old one never pointed to the new one. If you moved to a new web address, the old address needs a permanent redirect. I wrote about that in what is a 301 redirect, and does my website need one?

Ask Google directly with Search Console

Search Console is a free tool from Google. It shows what Google sees on your site, and it is the fastest way to get a real answer instead of a guess.

Sign in with a Google account and add your site. Google asks you to prove you own it. The usual method is a record added at your domain registrar or a small file added to the site. If someone else built your site, they may need to do this step. Who owns your website? explains why you want your own logins.

Then paste one page address into the search bar at the top. This is the URL Inspection tool. It tells you whether that page is on Google. If it is not, it gives a reason. Two reasons come up often:

Discovered, currently not indexed. Google knows the page exists and has not visited it yet.

Crawled, currently not indexed. Google visited and chose not to list the page. Thin pages, copied text, and pages with almost nothing on them land here. Add real content that fits what a customer looks for, then check again.

If the page is fine, press Request indexing. Do this for your home page and your main service pages. You do not need to do it for every page.

Also submit a sitemap. A sitemap is a list of your pages that Google can read. Many sites keep it at yourbusiness.ca/sitemap.xml. Open that address. If a list of your pages shows up, paste the same path into the Sitemaps section of Search Console. If nothing shows up, ask whoever built the site to add one.

If you are indexed and still cannot find yourself

Search your business name and your town. A business with an indexed site and a clear name should show up on the first page for its own name. If it does not, something is wrong, and Search Console is the next stop.

If you show up for your name but not for “electrician Vernon” or “midwife Salmon Arm,” that is a ranking question. A site can be listed and still sit far down the results. Three things move it:

The page says what you do and where. A home page that says “Welcome” and nothing else gives Google nothing to match. Name the service and the town in plain words, in headings and in the first paragraph. For a tradesperson in Armstrong, that means saying the trade and saying Armstrong.

You have a Google Business Profile. Local searches often show a map and three businesses above the regular results. A site alone does not get you into that group. How do I set up a Google Business Profile for my small business? walks through it.

The site gets upkeep. Broken pages, slow pages, and stale contact details hurt over time. The monthly SEO maintenance checklist covers what to look at and how often.

After a redesign

A redesign can drop a site out of Google if the old page addresses stop working and nothing replaces them. It can also happen when the new site launches with search engines switched off. Will a website redesign hurt my SEO? covers how to avoid both.

A note on promises

No one can promise you first place on Google. Anyone who does is guessing or selling. What I can tell you is whether Google can see your site, and that answer is one of the clearest in all of search work.

If you run through the checks above and still see nothing, book a consult. Send me your web address and I will tell you which of these causes applies.